The sense of adventure instilled during adolescence often does not accompany many into their adulthood.Â When we were younger, we boasted of our superhero qualities, bragged about our new six-shooters, boots and hat and enjoyed lazy summers, where we joined in the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.Â When we wore our superhero outfits, we believed we were superheroes.Â We acquired noble identities.Â We were as fast as Wilma Rudolph.Â We had white horses like George Washington.Â We walked on the surface of the Moon like Edwin â€œBuzzâ€ Aldrin.Â We were prepared to â€œboldly go where no one had gone before.â€Â The explorers who embarked on their journeys of discovery did not close the book on adventure.Â As modern Scout Program, there are chapters yet to be written, and we seek to instill a life long sense of adventure in our Scouts.Â Â

There was a time when youth had the opportunity to acquire heroes who did not disappoint.Â The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Hop Along Cassidy, and superheroes abounded who supplied wholesome entertainment to youth and taught them values of honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty, and the importance of friends and family.Â It is getting more difficult for parents to find entertainment they feel comfortable allowing their children to watch.Â It also seems like genuine heroes are getting much harder to come by.

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We encourage our Scouts to live their lives with the fullest sense of wonder and adventure they can.Â Our Scouts yearn to live their life to the fullest, squeezing every minute into the pages of their life.Â Adventures can be large or small.Â Our Scouts have the opportunity to go places and see things few have, such hiking in Yellowstone or hiking up Mt. Baden-Powell in Southern California.Â But adventures also exist in small places and day-to-day activities.Â Our Scouts live lives of adventure when they ride their bike for the first time without training wheels, or catch their first fish.Â However, whether the adventure is large or small, in every instance, we instill a deep appreciation of the wonder and awe to life.

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Growing Up

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One of our duties as a Scout Program is help our Scouts grow into contributing members of society as confident, resourceful adults.Â However, there is one thing we hope our Scouts never fully grow out of and that is living a life of adventure.Â We want our Scouts to understand it is not necessary to give up FUN and adventure entirely in order to grow up.Â Adults lead healthier, happier lives when they include FUN, and we want our Scouts to never lose what is best about being a kid â€“ the sense of wonder and awe that makes every experience an adventure and every new person a friend.

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We Instill Adventure

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We offer our Scouts a passport to adventure.Â Since our Scouts choose, organize, and lead their own meetings, programs, and activities, they get the opportunity to craft their own adventures from concept to completion.Â Because our Scouts personalize their own adventures, they become invested in the process and appreciate their adventures all the more as their own choice.

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We value the opportunity to be part of our Scoutsâ€™ entire lives, inspiring adventure in them lifelong.

Adventure is an attitude.Â It is comprised of interpreting our experiences, in a way in which we can turn the mundane into the mythic.Â If we look at the world, diversity rules!Â That is because adventure is individual.Â Our Scouts participate together and know there is strength in numbers, but each of our Scouts is an individual, empowered to create their own FUN and adventure.

Our Scouts are Modern Day Heroes

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We have no desire to turn back the clock and we recognize the â€œgood old daysâ€ were not always so good for everyone.Â Many things have improved in the modern world, including youth protection, particularly in our Scout Programs.Â However, the loss of heroes kids could count on is a blow for all of us. The world can be a harsh place, and as adults we must learn to find our place in it, but we feel the world would be a better place if a kid could just be a kid for a while and not feel obligated to measure up to standards of perfection often displayed in the media and that equally as often are impossible to reach.

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In todayâ€™s day and age the dragons we slay are busy schedules, computers that do not work, cars that breakdown, jobs that offer no time off, and a thousand little annoyances of everyday life.Â All of the pleasures of modern life, which we were told would save us time and energy, seem to do the opposite.Â But we just do not see anything wrong with a kid wanting to slay a real dragon once in a while!

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That is why part of Scout Programs hearken back to another era.Â Our Scout Programs employ the building blocks of self-esteem:Â such as making sure all our Scouts participate, all cross the finish line, and putting the emphasis on our Scouts safely having FUN, rather than winning at all costs.Â If your child wants to have FUN, they will have FUN here.Â If your child is not a joiner, they will find others like them here.Â If your child wants to play sports, but may not have a high skill level, they will play and have their confidence built up rather than torn down.Â This is because all our Scouts play.Â If we have 15 Scouts who want to play and the teams are supposed to have 7 Scouts on each team, one will have 7 and the other will have 8.Â All our Scouts play the same amount of time, even on our intramural teams.Â Our goal is for our Scouts to have FUN and play the sport they love, which they cannot do if they are sitting on a bench!

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Our Scouts dress up as their favorite superhero, hold themed dinners, go camping, and pretend to be cowboys.Â We have a program, Make a Dream Come True, exclusively dedicated to making our Scoutsâ€™ dreams a reality.Â We do all this because it is okay to just be a kid and have FUN in our Scout Programs.